It’s easy to get worked into a schiuma by the revelation that Starbucks hasn’t managed to pay any corporation tax in the UK since 2009 – click here for report. Big turnover is, apparently, eaten away by expensive licensing royalties to an overseas subsidiary (Holland) of the Starbucks parent company, expensive beans bought from another overseas subsidiary (Switzerland) and then roasted by yet another overseas subsidiary (Holland).

Poor Jimmy Carr has realised he made a ‘massive error of judgment’ and he’s really sorry. The comedian somehow stumbled on a tax avoidance scheme that saved him an awful lot of money – click here.

Carr is a man who feels that his success allows him to stand apart from other people. As Leona Helmsley once said;

“We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.”

And justice. While Leona did serve at least a little time in gaol for tax evasion (click here) Jimmy Carr has repeatedly, well, let me phrase this carefully, he has repeatedly managed to secure the best possible outcome for himself after being prosecuted for motoring offences by hiring very expensive specialist lawyers – see here for more on that.

It was more interesting to see the flailing on this issue from politicians. They simply did not know how to respond. They did not understand how their reactions reflected on the nature of our society and its governance which, given that a basic role of government is gathering and spending money, is quite revealing. I’m not sure our politicians really know what they are there for anymore. Read the rest of this entry »